Declining growth of natural history collections fails future generations

New additions of vertebrate specimens to natural history collections are declining in the midst of widespread and accelerating environmental change. Reversing these trends in collecting efforts is essential for addressing future unforeseen ecological issues.

declines in growth rates of plant [6] and insect [7] collections likely reflect similar changes in fashionable research programs and not increased ethical controversy surrounding the collection of these taxa. For vertebrates, however, the recognition that animals are sentient creatures with their own interests makes scientific collecting ethically more controversial now than it was in the past.
Collecting specimens pits 2 valuable things against each other: the life of a sentient animal versus the immediate knowledge gained by taking that animal's life. The focus on immediate knowledge fails to address the unforeseen importance of specimen data for answering questions that were not, or could not have been, asked when the specimen was collected. In short, this argument ignores the unknowable future value of specimens [8]. Debates over the ethics of collecting often focus on the killing of individuals without thoughtful consideration of what will be lost if we cease collecting. Will existing collections be sufficient for future scientific studies? How will an absence of contemporary physical specimens undermine future conservation efforts? What new discoveries will future technologies reveal from using old specimens? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers and no escaping the ethical tension tied to scientific collecting.
Current declines in collecting activity also come amid the most dramatic environmental changes to have occurred since the Enlightenment. Documenting and responding to these changes frequently relies on retrospective analyses that involve the application of new technologies to specimens that were collected before environmental changes occurred. Uncertainties in both the questions we will ask and the technologies we will have in the future highlight 2 important points: collecting organisms, as opposed to nonlethal tissue samples, maximizes data for future studies, and specimens have an irreplaceable role in understanding unforeseen changes in natural systems.
Declines in the number of physical specimens collected also coincide with dramatic increases in observational data. The notion that observational specimens or nonlethal samples (such as blood, fur samples, fin clips, or photographs) are comprehensive replacements for traditional specimens is mistaken. These data are narrower in focus, limiting their potential to be used to address questions beyond the scope for which they were originally collected. We recognize that different specimen types-physical and observational-have their strengths and weakness, and we see opportunities to better understand populations by combining these data sets. However, nonlethal sampling approaches are not comprehensive replacements for physical specimens.
The decline in collecting is also ethically problematic. Because scientific collecting is typically justified by the knowledge gained from specimens, this ethical justification should also extend to existing specimens and to the knowledge that is lost by failing to collect new specimens. Declines in collecting create unfillable gaps in one of our longest running data sets about natural systems, which erodes the value of existing collections for future discovery and compromises the ethical justification for both current and past collecting.
The question that remains to be addressed is whether this trend can be reversed. Growth of collections can come in many ways. University-based museums that train future curators should have active collecting programs that teach researchers how to use collections and how active research programs can complement and guide the growth of collections. Growing nontraditional collections of specimen attributes (such as extended wings and syrinxes in birds, nests, or specimens at different developmental stages) provides novel specimen types while building scientifically useful collections. For some taxa, developing coordinated salvage networks across museums, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and other relevant parties offer promising ways to build collections, especially of species only obtainable through salvage because of rarity. DAU : ThesentenceDevelopingcapacitylocallyand:::isincomplete:Plea eveloping capacity locally and abroad will deepen our understanding of less studied taxa and areas, and these discoveries that should be led by local researchers.
We also have to continue the ethical conversation. We should not dismiss the concerns of individuals about collecting, but we need to be clear about the knowledge gained from natural history collections and how this knowledge is essential to so many scientific disciplines. If we, as a scientific community, value understanding changes in populations and ecosystems through time and the accumulation of scientific knowledge, then scientific collecting should continue. If the declines in collecting continue, the legacy we leave future generations will be an unfillable gap in the longest tangible record of life on earth, created precisely in the midst of widespread and dramatic environmental change. Is this a risk we are willing to take?